ABSTRACT
Distance learning has a long history. The first recorded history of distance learning can be traced to an advertisement for private correspondence courses in shorthand in the Boston Gazette in the year 1728 (Sleator, 2010, p. 320). During the COVID-19 pandemic, university campuses have closed, and distance learning has literally become the only possible solution to continue teaching and learning. Around the world, 1.5 billion students are out of schools and colleges, according to UNESCO (April 2020). Under these circumstances, how are teachers and students adapting to this sudden need for mainstreaming distance education? The author of this chapter sought to explore this question by choosing a convenient sample to examine the distance learning experience of their own students during the spring 2020 semester. This chapter will present findings from an online survey of 106 students from a private university in India that transitioned to fully online teaching and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter will discuss the pros and cons of efforts to mainstream online distance learning in the middle of the global pandemic, even though historically it evolved to expand access to higher education. Finally, this chapter will conclude how COVID-19-related lockdowns and social distancing norms might reshape distance learning based on evidence from this study.
